The client tax letter project: client communication for tax professionals.

• Author: Kinkela, Katherine

Undergraduate tax students are typically juniors and seniors eager to apply in a professional context the accounting and tax concepts they learn. They perceive value in the real-world context of interactive in-class activities. In preparation for their professional careers, students welcome the opportunity to develop essential skills, including writing a letter to a client. Students find this practice helps them in their internships, where they see firsthand the value of effective communications (see AICPA Insights blog post, "The Importance of Communications in Accounting" (Aug. 27,2012), available at tinyurl.com/zsboqk4).

Tax firms are looking for students who can demonstrate professional skills in writing. While some professors feel that substantive tax courses are not writing courses, tax classes should teach students not only to navigate the Code but also to communicate their findings effectively through internal memos and client communications. Indeed, most accountants, faculty, and professional organizations believe that writing should be an important part of accounting education (see Riley and Simons, "Writing in the Accounting Curriculum: A Review of the Literature With Conclusions for Implementation and Future Research," 28 Issues in Accounting Education 823 (2013)).

Understanding both client needs and the tax law is critical to accounting students' future professional success. From the introductory undergraduate coursework in taxation, students should be encouraged to frame tax issues and to communicate to clients the relationship between facts relevant to the client's situation and the applicable tax law. The challenge is finding appropriate tax topics to engage students in creating effective research. A client tax letter project that emphasizes research, teamwork, and effective communication can serve these objectives in the undergraduate tax class.

In this project, students gather in groups with their professor to discuss the needs of fictitious individual clients and evaluate the facts and circumstances of each client's tax issue. They discuss relevant aspects of the tax law and determine appropriate responses to the client's questions. By sharing issues of their hypothetical clients with one another, students develop a common core of competency in tax concepts and consider the application of tax concepts in a practical setting. Parsing the Code in their discussion, they become more professional and focused. Through this process, the students prepare to engage hypothetical clients in their final deliverable, a client letter.

The Client Tax Letter...